Newsletter: 2012, October

RSC’s October Newsletter

Welcome to RSC’s October Newsletter!

You are receiving this newsletter because we either like you, want to like you, have worked with you, want to work with you or think you want to hear more from us and our perspectives on the mineral exploration industry.

Assuming you are still with us, in October’s RSC newsletter we give an update of what we’re up to and we shared our on-the-ground perception of changes currently occurring in the mineral exploration industry. We encourage open debate on these matters in our ever-growing Facebook and LinkedIN entourage: Speak your mind (as long as you agree with us of course)!

When times are tough, exploration dollars get cut and drill rigs are heading back into the maintenance yards. We as a business need to adapt and move along with this change. To this effect we have increased our focus on higher level resource and mine studies. Sean Aldrich has joined us in the capacity of Principal Consultant (more on this below) and we have forged some important alliances to support us in this work. We are sharing the office of the good fellows at Snowden’s in West Perth and we are now assisting clients with due diligence, resource and evaluation work in Africa, Europe and Asia. Contact us if you would like a quotation for your project.

At the same time we are continuing our work as exploration “boots on the ground” operators and will be assisting a new client with a large drilling project in northern Europe in the coming months. Nine of RSC’s best and brightest will head over and weather the cold!

RSC Dunedin (NZ) shake-up!

Don’t underestimate our little corner of the world in New Zealand. There is plenty happening here! Last weekend we organised a very successful social evening and met with industry operators, miners, consultants, geologists, students and academia at the Mac’s Brew Bar with the very important theme of “Beer and Gossip”. Over 30 people attended, which suggests that the industry scene definitely lives down south! If you are a Dunedinite and missed out this time, come along next time! We will organise this casual get-together each month. Drinks are on us. Contact Nik if you wish to be included (n.boswell@rscmme.com)

Global economics and “The Situation”: it’s the economy, stupid!

If you’ve followed the recent first American presidential debate then like me, you may have frowned a few times. This newsletter is not a platform for political views but it’s clear that the results of next month’s elections will have some effect on what is going on globally. Apart from other relevant issues, Romney is fighting Obama on his views on the coal and clean energy sectors. Besides all the “facts” that get twisted by his campaign, does he actually know this industry or is he just scoring cheap points drafted by the Tea folk? Obama came in 4 years ago as the Green Man but now he is putting himself out there as Mr Oil to compete with Romney. What effect will the elections have on our industry? Post your views on our Facebook page and let us know what you think.

Welcome to Sean Aldrich!

We are delighted to have the opportunity to work and associate with Sean Aldrich. His first task is to evaluate several properties in Zimbabwe for a client. Sean missed the socialising in Dunedin last week, but he was lucky enough to see plenty of elephants while out in the field in Zimbabwe, and thinks that there are plenty of elephants to find under the ground in Zimbabwe too.

Sean is a geologist with 17 years mining and exploration experience in New Zealand, PNG, Middle East, Central Asia and Africa. In New Zealand he was involved with the exploration and commissioning of OceanaGold’s Frasers Underground Mine and open pit mine production at Macraes. Since 2008 he has held senior positions, including General Manager, at Mawarid Mining in Oman. Sean was involved in the successful discovery and mining of several copper VMS projects. These projects significantly increased Mawarid’s LOM and expanded the company into an international explorer.

Sean is based out of our Dunedin office and is looking forward to helping clients with their project requirements from early stage exploration to mining production.

The market, prices, employment and ….what do we think about it?

What has happened since our last newsletter? We were suggesting last month that things would probably be on the mend early next year and that certain basic parameters are still looking strong. We stand by those points and note that indeed important things such as the iron ore price (important drivers for the Australian economy) have bounced back by 25% to the comfortable levels of the $120-ies.

Of course, gold also had a good run on the back of the QE in the US and the continued unrest in Europe. As this goes to press, there is some pressure downwards on this as figures from the US are increasingly positive (albeit minor) but we still think that this will keep things afloat for a while.

We are also hearing from some corners and guys who work on the coal face of the trading game, that there is some money starting to flow in the market and that trading has picked up. In a recent TV debate on the financial state of Europe the summary was clear that the panel was moderately positive about the outlook….are they just spinning it straight or is there some truth in this? We stick to our outlook and look forward to plenty to do in the new year and that the rebound will be quite energetic. Let us know what you think on our Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter accounts.

RSC’s people – Geologist Profile

Each month we profile one of our great geologists or support people, the people that make RSC tick. This month Marcel Van Helden has drawn the short straw!

Marcel obtained his MSc degree in geology at VU University in Amsterdam and joined RSC earlier this year. While most of his prior rock-bashing was done throughout Europe (and a little in China), Marcel has now found himself in Western Australia. Here he has been seconded to RSC client Barrick Gold at their Granny Smith Mine.

Marcel grew up in Zaandam, which is about 10km north of Amsterdam, the Netherlands. His interest in earth sciences goes a long way back to when he was about 7-8 years old. Marcel has always been interested in stuff like volcanoes; he collected rocks, read books on dinosaurs etc. But his interest goes beyond just earth sciences. Marcel finds planetary sciences very interesting (hence the Mars project at ESA) and he finds theoretical physics (Einstein-stuff concerning formation and composition of the universe etc.) mind-blowing. If he would have time he would do a BSc in physics just for the fun of understanding more of it!

Some questions we asked Marcel:

Apart from rocks what else do you like? Food! And on my time off I like to travel (I have been on a WA tour to Shark bay and I have been to Singapore in the past 6 weeks). I have a passion for snowboarding; I normally go on a winter sports holiday at least twice a year. I will have to see how that works out now I am in Australia though.

Where is one place you would like to visit? I would like to do a trekking in the Himalayas and I have not been to NZ yet - I am planning on doing that sometime next year. I’d also love to visit Antarctica one day if possible.

What do you like about RSC? I like how everyone in the company is so dedicated to performing to the maximum, beyond clients' expectations. It is good how RSC management is closely involved in all the different projects; we get the freedom to do our own thing but we can always fall back on them. And it is good that there are short ties to everyone in the company.

Bucket list. Do you have one? Yes or no? No, that does not work for me. I have a few things that I would like to do when/if possible (like going to Antarctica) but if you put things like that on a list you may end up disappointed if at the end of your life, you have completed only half the list. I will leave that for others I think.

What has been your favourite moment in your professional career so far? I cannot really pick one moment, but I have to say I just like being on site as part of the RSC Granny's team. It is amazing that after only a few weeks I was already an integral part of the Granny Smith Exploration team. Of course it is always exciting when our drill holes intersect big and high-grade ore zones; days when that happen are the best for sure!

So what does RSC do?

RSC provides geological contracting services with a difference: we don’t just send out geologists to help with a programme; we make sure our professionals have excellent support and come with all the tools, hardware and software necessary to hit the ground running.

We do more than just fill a gap in your busy exploration and mining programmes; we add genuine value, whether it is logging core on an underground rig, logging RC chips on a surface rig, or looking after an exploration programme from A to Z.

We understand of course that we are not the only ones offering these kind of services but RSC feels strongly that its clients shouldn’t have to pay for a contractor, pay higher than normal rates and at the same time have to educate and kit them up as well, something that we hear only too often!

We look after our clients as well as our geologists, charge very affordable rates and invest in the training of our geologists to make sure they add value from day one. We operate worldwide and work for junior explorers as well as for bigger companies such as Barrick. For more info see www.rscmme.com.

We would value the opportunity to follow up to discuss our services in greater detail and how we could cater for and be of benefit to your team and project goals.